Habits of the Mole. 1 05 



have caught four white moles, or rather cream-coloured ones. 

 The mole dwells in burrows, excavated with wonderful skill, 

 many rods in length, and some parts of them only a few 

 inches below the surface of the earth ; while others are some 

 yards deep. It will make several yards of these runs in a 

 day; and, in some land, will drive the soil before it by small 

 portions, after it has worked it out of the solid, to a length 

 of from three to six yards, before it reaches the place where 

 it throws up its hillock. When this little animal thinks it 

 too far to take the earth [soil] to the last hillock, it works 

 another perpendicular opening to the surface of the earth, 

 out of which it throws another heap. This is the case when 

 the mole is making its deep runs. In these excavations it 

 will travel at a wonderful speed. Even the weasel, which is 

 a great enemy to the mole, cannot keep up with it; though, 

 on the surface of the earth, it would perhaps travel four rods 

 before the mole could travel one. I have frequently ob- 

 served, in the bottom of these runs, a perpendicular hole or 

 well, at which the animal probably drinks. Some of them 

 are of a considerable depth, and apparently dry ; but, not 

 being able to see the bottom, I have dropped a little earth 

 into the well, and by this means perceived that it contained 

 water. Down these the mole can safely travel, and return 

 at pleasure. In some kinds of land, and in wet weather, 

 these wells are full to the brim. That moles have frequent 

 recourse to water will be seen from the well-known fact that 

 they are easily taken, and in great numbers, in a run which 

 leads to a brook or pit, in dry weather. Its nest is generally 

 made in some secure place, sometimes under the root of a 

 tree or thorn bush; often in dry hedgerows; also in solid 

 marl banks, several feet, or even yards, deep. I never knew 

 more than six young ones to be found in one nest ; generally 

 there are four or five. The nest is composed of dry grass, 

 but sometimes mixed with green grass ; the inside is com- 

 posed of old dry leaves, frequently oak leaves; its form re- 

 sembles that of a wren's nest, being like an oven. The mole 

 has many roads from the nest; as it is not only formed for 

 the depositing of its young, but for a comfortable lodging 

 through the year. In land where moles are not much de- 

 stroyed, they will frequently make nests in the middle of 

 fields, where they throw up a heap of earth six or seven 

 times as large as the common hillocks. Moles are much in- 

 fested with fleas, resembling those which trouble human 

 beings, but larger and lighter-coloured. Though I have 

 carried great numbers of these creatures with me, I do not 

 remember ever to have seen one of these fleas on my clothes. 



